The present invention relates to the determination of the specific gravity of a fluid test sample. The determination of the specific gravity of a fluid test sample has numerous practical applications in various fields such as brewing, urinalysis and water purification. Particularly in urinalysis, the determination of the kidney's ability to respond to variations in fluid intake can be made by measuring the urine's specific gravity since the specific gravity is a function of the number, density, ionic charge and weight of the various species of dissolved solutes. For example, it has been reported that for every incremental increase of 0.12M in NaCl concentration, a corresponding change in specific gravity of 0.005 occurs. Detection of increases in a patient's urine concentration of sodium would be of interest to the clinician as an indicator of risk of hypertension and the patient's dietary control.
A state of the art technique for the quick and inexpensive determination of the specific gravity (as a function of ionic strength) is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,709. This technique involves the use of a weakly acidic or basic polyelectrolyte polymer which is at least about 50 percent neutralized and an indicator which is capable of producing a detectable response to ion exchange between the polyelectrolyte and the fluid sample being tested. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,827 this technique is extended to strongly acidic and basic polyelectrolytes. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,218 there is disclosed a test means for determining the presence of an ion in an aqueous test sample which involves contacting the test sample with an ionophore and an indicator capable of interacting with the complex formed between the ionophore and ion to produce a detectable response. Exemplary of the ionophore used in this system are cyclic polyethers commonly referred to as crown ethers.